Love At First Sight
by FiveRoses
Summary: Lisbon falls in love and since it isn't Jane she's in love with, he doesn't cope especially well with this unexpected development. Shippers, fear not: love at first sight naturally can't compete with true love. One-shot.


_This is what's known as a quickie (i.e. written extremely fast because the idea mugged me). Which is my way of saying that it's no masterpiece. And for those who may have concerns regarding the storyline, bear in mind that I am an unshakeable Jane/Lisbon shipper, so stick with me and do not panic._

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**Love At First Sight**

It was quite simply love at first sight. To say Lisbon hadn't been expecting it would be a grave understatement. To say it wasn't at all what she thought she wanted would hit the nail on the head. But she saw him and that was that.

They were working on a case and she and Jane had gone to see one of the witnesses, a rather highly-strung woman who hadn't been very helpful the first time they had interviewed her. Jane had decided that he could get more out of her if he talked to her in a safe environment, so they had duly gone to her brother's house where she was staying for a few days while she recovered from her ordeal. It was the brother who opened the door and that was the moment that changed Lisbon's life completely.

Jane, surprisingly, didn't immediately pick up on Lisbon's reaction. He was concentrating on other things, and it didn't occur to him that Lisbon would feel the slightest bit of interest in the irrelevant man who was inviting them into his home. She'd never shown any interest in anyone before and, besides, she belonged to him. Everyone knew that. Especially Lisbon.

He conducted the interview, produced some very useful results, felt complacently pleased with his own brilliance, and only then did he suddenly become aware that Lisbon and whatshisname were looking at each other in a way that made Jane want to instantly wring the guy's neck and drag Lisbon away by the hair. But he also knew, with a terrible sinking feeling, that he was too late. If he'd had a chance, he'd missed it. Jane's tenuous sense of security crumbled to dust.

Lisbon and Andy were ridiculously happy with each other. Even Jane had to admit that. Lisbon seemed to glow all the time. Nothing fazed her. Jane's antics didn't bother her, even when she got into trouble for them. She and Andy talked to or texted each other several times a day. It was clear where the focus of her thoughts was. Although the quality of her work didn't waver, her whole demeanour was different. Lisbon in love was an unexpected and rather beautiful sight.

Lisbon was so immersed in her sudden new passion that she didn't even notice that the happier she got the more miserable Jane got. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be happy, but that another man should be the cause was a bitter blow. At first Jane thought that when he got over the initial shock of Lisbon dating someone else he'd soon recover his poise, but as time passed it started to become clear that that wasn't going to happen. He knew Lisbon well enough to know just by looking at her exactly how her relationship was progressing. He knew when they first kissed, first slept together, first starting staying over at each other's places. And it was driving him crazy.

The principal trouble with Andy was that he was perfect for Lisbon. If Jane had been Lisbon's brother, he would have considered Andy the ideal guy for her to date. He was everything Jane wasn't – stable, sane, easy-going, reliable, truthful and entirely lacking in homicidal tendencies or quests for vengeance. He had a big, friendly family who welcomed Lisbon with open arms. He had no baggage worth mentioning – no children or previous wives (dead or otherwise), no past tragedies, no terrible regrets. He was intelligent and funny and had the kind of looks that Jane knew Lisbon liked best – tall and dark, with dancing eyes and laugh lines. How could Jane have ever thought she'd go for him when there were men like Andy out there? He'd been delusional.

"Your partner doesn't like me," Andy said to Lisbon, a few weeks after they started dating.

Lisbon looked puzzled. "What partner?" she said.

"Patrick Jane. He looks at me like death would be too good for me."

"Oh, Jane," Lisbon said dismissively. "He's just being possessive. He'll get over it."

He didn't get over it, though. The further Lisbon drifted away from him and into her new life, the angrier and more depressed Jane became. The worst part was that Lisbon scarcely noticed. She treated him much the same way she always had, because as far as she was concerned nothing between them had changed. That he was acting out and being a little more difficult because she wasn't focusing her attention on him to quite the same extent as she had previously, she just accepted as being par for the course.

Jane couldn't understand how he had been so wrong about Lisbon. He'd been perfectly convinced that he and she shared a special bond, but her current behaviour belied that romantic notion of his completely. Lisbon didn't think of him as being in any way special to her at all. All the times she'd stuck her neck out for him, done things for him that he'd thought she'd never do for anyone else, were apparently simply Lisbon being Lisbon. It wasn't about him at all. She just protected her own, and he happened to be her own for the present, so she protected him instinctively. But her heart had never been his.

After a couple of months of complete misery, Jane finally realised he couldn't handle working with Lisbon anymore. He went to Hightower and asked to change the terms of his contract. He still wanted to work on the Red John case, and in return he'd still consult for the CBI if there were cases that seriously needed his expertise, but he didn't want to be there full-time, and he'd prefer to avoid consulting on cases for Lisbon's team.

"Is there a problem between you and Lisbon?" Hightower asked him.

"No. I just need a change," Jane said, trying to look nonchalant.

"This is about Lisbon's new boyfriend, isn't it? And I agree with you, if it bothers you this much that she's dating someone, then you shouldn't be working with her. I'll organise a new contract for you to sign, effective immediately. It'll be ready by the end of the day."

Lisbon was surprised and hurt that Hightower was the one to tell her that Jane's status had changed from permanent to casual, and that he would no longer be attached specifically to Lisbon's unit. Hightower didn't mention the stipulation that Jane wouldn't consult for Lisbon's team on any case other than the Red John case. It was only several weeks later, after Hightower had declined on three separate occasions to call Jane in to consult on a case with Lisbon, that Lisbon finally realised that Jane was refusing to work with her.

She left work earlier than usual that afternoon, and went straight over to Jane's home. When he opened the door, she greeted him with, "So, you don't want to work with me anymore."

"What makes you think this has anything to do with you? I needed a change, that's all. Don't take everything so personally, Lisbon."

"Right, so it's just a coincidence that we worked together for five years and suddenly when I start dating someone, you need a change?"

"Fine, Lisbon, it's all about you. I can't stand to see you happy so I left the unit."

Jane and Lisbon glared at each other.

"You know what, Jane? If you don't even have the courtesy to talk to me after all we've been through; if you can't even be bothered to tell me you're leaving or to say goodbye, then I don't know why I even try. Have a nice life!"

She turned and stormed off, getting all the way to her car before Jane caught up with her and said softly, "I'm sorry, Lisbon. I want you to be happy but it hurts too much to see you with someone else."

Lisbon turned to him with big, amazed eyes.

"Someone else? As in someone other than you?"

Jane just looked at her. Lisbon became very still.

"You never said anything. Why didn't you say something? How long have you felt this way?"

Jane shrugged.

"A long time. I thought you and I... I thought we were... I don't know." Unable to explain himself, he fell silent and looked at the ground.

"I had no idea, Jane. I thought you were unavailable. Would always be unavailable. I didn't think I could afford to think of you that way. I'm so sorry."

Jane lifted pleading eyes to hers.

"But we had something, right? I wasn't imagining that, was I?"

"We still have something, Jane. You're my best friend. I know I've been neglecting you lately, but surely you can understand that? You know I'd do anything for you. Haven't I proved that to you?"

Some of the pain that Jane had been feeling eased a little. He hadn't been totally wrong. She thought what they had was special too. She just hadn't allowed her thoughts to stray into forbidden territory the way he had. And the only reason for that was because she believed he would never be interested in her that way. All was not lost. Sometimes a man needs to fight for what he wants.

"I love you, Lisbon. I love you and I want you. I can't begin to express how sorry I am for waiting so long to tell you. I know this is the worst possible timing and that I've now put you in an awkward position, but I can't just be friends with you. I can't watch you being with another man. I'm so sorry."

And then he did something that shocked them both. He pressed her against her car so she couldn't escape and he kissed her, gently but insistently. Lisbon, after her initial frozen shock, fully intended to push him away, but the movement of his lips against hers and the heady, forbidden taste of him clouded her brain, mesmerising her. She wondered for a second whether he'd hypnotised her, but she knew he hadn't. She responded to his desire for her with an aching need of her own that she'd suppressed for years and with a love she'd persistently denied. The kiss was long and slow and completely knee-buckling and when they broke apart it was as though the world had disintegrated and then reformed in a completely new way. And suddenly Lisbon was very miserable indeed.

She pushed Jane away, horrified and confused. He let her drive away, feeling both shame for putting her in this position and exhilaration at the knowledge that Lisbon loved him too.

Because Lisbon believed in honesty, she went home and told Andy about the kiss. Andy listened politely and then he calmly broke up with her. Lisbon stared at him in stunned horror.

"Just like that?"

"You cheated on me," he said, the hurt evident in his eyes. "You have no right to get upset with me. And I'm not breaking up with you because of one kiss, Teresa. I'm breaking up with you because you love him. I've met him, remember? I know when I'm fighting a battle I'm not going to win."

Andy didn't give Lisbon a chance to try and talk him out of his decision. He'd had his doubts about Patrick Jane from the beginning, and now that she'd confirmed his suspicions, he wasn't about to hang around and let her win him back to be crushed another day. He'd stayed single as long as he had because his principal failing was that he liked things to be easy and he bailed when they got complicated. Easy come, easy go. Andy vanished from Lisbon's life as swiftly as he'd arrived.

Lisbon didn't tell Jane right away. She spent a few days getting used to the idea that she'd lost one man she loved and gained another. She didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, so she did both. Jane, to his credit, didn't contact Lisbon. He gave her her space while she figured things out.

The following week, she texted Jane a short message: 'Andy broke up with me.'

Jane showed up on her doorstep less than fifteen minutes after she sent the message. When she opened the door, he walked straight into her arms and held her to him.

"Does this mean you're mine now?" he asked softly into her hair.

Lisbon tilted her head back so that she could look at him. She gave him a slightly wry little smile.

"All yours," she said.

Jane smiled. Those were the most beautiful words he's ever heard.

THE END

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_And no, I'm not going to write a sequel where Jane tries to persuade Hightower to let him work with Lisbon again even though he's dating her now. The subject of colleagues not being allowed to date irritates me somewhat._


End file.
